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Ask HN: Which tool do you use to create beautiful diagrams?

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Re: Ask HN: Which tool do you use to create beautiful diagrams?

#91
Shameless plug: https://diagramiq.com/

This is a product that I've been working on for the last 2 years. You won't be able to create those animated diagrams (yet), but you can create pretty much anything else: Flowcharts, UML, BPMN, VENN, server architecture and other unique diagrams.

Re: Ask HN: Which tool do you use to create beautiful diagrams?

#95

Very surprised to see no one mentioning yeD here. It is _the one_ diagram making tool I go to, when I make any diagrams related to software development. The only areas where I had issues with it, that I can remember were: - "How do I teach it to make these halfcircle-circle joints of component diagrams?" - Sequence diagrams are a bit slow to make with it, because yeD not knowing their semantics and not doing much for…

Seconded, yEd is amazing.

I've found it fantastic for eg UML-like class diagrams. It has a beautifully simplistic approach to UML (which is an overdesigned mess, but that doesn't mean that all class diagrams are useless): for each class, the method list and attribute list are just two multiline text fields. Compare that to other UML tools that have a "Edit Method" dialog and whatnot.

The UX is amazing, especially once you get the hang of it and know how to circumvent its few quirks. I find that for many kinds of diagrams, drawing them in yEd is faster than on paper (the actual drawing is roughly as fast, changing my mind is an order of magnitude faster)

Re: Ask HN: Which tool do you use to create beautiful diagrams?

#96

http://plantuml.com I've been doing a lot of flow diagrams and PlantUML has been invaluable. I specifically like it because sharing the flow means sharing some text, which itself is vaguely human-readable. There's an online renderer (bottom of the page in the above link), which means simple diagrams are also quick to create and view. It's got a few different modes that it understands but I'd definitely add it to the…

I second, third and fourth this. Anytime I'm not sure about a design, I sketch it out in plantuml and play around with it. Every project of mine has at least one or two plantuml diagrams checked into it.

Re: Ask HN: Which tool do you use to create beautiful diagrams?

#98
Depending on what type of diagram I need, I use one of:

1. LaTeX + TikZ - if my diagram is simple or lends itself well to the TikZ syntax, I can usually get it done quickly and have it look professional.

2. Graphviz - if I'm drawing anything that can be represented as a directed graph, Graphiviz is fantastic due to it's automatic positioning and layout.

3. ipe (http://ipe.otfried.org/) - for heavy lifting where neither of the above will cut it, ipe does a great job. It's basically xfig, but on steroids and with a modern UI. Here are some samples: https://github.com/otfried/ipe-wiki/wiki/Showcase

Re: Ask HN: Which tool do you use to create beautiful diagrams?

#99

I use Whimsical. https://whimsical.co/ It makes it super simple to create good-looking diagrams, and it can do a lot more than just diagrams too.

I used Whimsical to spec a complex product flow for my last project and it was by far the fastest diagramming tool I've ever used. It is not, however, a way to make beautiful diagrams.

I wish Figma would integrate the snapping behavior of Whimsical – that, I think, would be the ultimate diagramming tool.

Re: Ask HN: Which tool do you use to create beautiful diagrams?

#100
post #91

Shameless plug: https://diagramiq.com/ This is a product that I've been working on for the last 2 years. You won't be able to create those animated diagrams (yet), but you can create pretty much anything else: Flowcharts, UML, BPMN, VENN, server architecture and other unique diagrams.

Interesting. But, having no idea about the future pricing, I'm very reluctant to really use it.
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